William Eggleston’s Guide is the legendary catalog accompanying the first solo exhibition of color photography ever held at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. In 1976, color was still largely dismissed as the domain of advertising or amateur snapshots. Eggleston’s work shattered these boundaries. Curated by John Szarkowski, the “Guide” presents 48 color plates that focus on the mundane, everyday life of the American South—a tricycle on a sidewalk, a child’s bedroom, a cluttered kitchen. Through the expensive dye-transfer process, Eggleston achieved a level of color saturation and permanence that turned these ordinary subjects into icons of high art. Szarkowski’s landmark introductory essay famously described the photographs as “perfect,” arguing that Eggleston had discovered a new way of seeing the world where no subject was too trivial for the camera’s attention.
